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Vatican City, May 18, 2013 / 09:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis spoke today about how gossip by Christians is a “slap� to Jesus “in the person of his children.� “All three - disinformation, defamation and slander - are sins! This is sin! It is to slap Jesus in the person of his children, his brothers,� the Pope said May 18 in the chapel of St. Martha’s House. The topic game up in Pope Francis’ homily because of the day’s Gospel reading from John 21 in which Peter asks if John will be alive when Jesus returns to earth. ?“What...

The American Atheists of Cranford, N.J., announced Friday they will be sending books on atheism to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to be placed next to Gideon Bibles inside every cabin and lodge at the state's parks. On April 28, Ed Buchner, the former president of American Atheists, a nonprofit organization that was founded by Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1963, complained to the Department after he found "nine Bibles" inside his cabin, according to American Atheists. In a move to avoid controversy, and a potential lawsuit, the decision was made to remove all Bibles from the state's parks that...

IntroductionROY WENZL & TRAVIS HEYING What soldiers say Kapaun did is so heroic that it defies believability. Some people regard the meek man as one who will not put up a fight for anything but will let others run over him .... In fact from human experience we know that to accomplish anything good a person must make an effort; and making an effort is putting up a fight against the obstacles. - Father Emil Kapaun Emil Kapaun — priest, soldier and Korean War hero — is a rare man. He has been awarded the Medal of Honor, the...

[SNIP] The Church's predictions came as it launched an attack on plans by the First Minister, Alex Salmond, for a new class of “belief” ceremonies – alongside traditional religious and civil weddings. The Scottish Government is currently attempting to overhaul the marriage laws north of the border, primarily to introduce same-sex marriage. But the bill would also include a wider update of matrimonial laws including plans to create a “third way” to get married, through so-called “belief” ceremonies to accommodate those who do not belief in a deity but do but do promote a belief system. It follows the popularity...

Russell Ford’s testimony is captivating, surprising, sobering, and, at times, rather humorous. The following interview is much longer than most CWR features, but we think readers will find his story, perspective, and insights both challenging and encouraging. Also, Russell's recent appearance on EWTN's "The Journey Home" can be viewed on the EWTN website. CWR: For those who might not be familiar with your background, let’s go back to the mid-1980s. Prior to going to prison, were you a Catholic? What were you doing prior to being imprisoned? Ford: No, I wasn’t a Catholic. I hunted bounty after I got...

Here’s a story about a poignant and prayerful work of mercy most people never hear about.Details: No one Mary Helen Wells knew was at her funeral.The physical sum of her 85 years filled a donated urn Monday afternoon, among 36 other donated urns full of unwanted remains. A kindly priest said prayers and stowed them in a crypt. A groundskeeper sealed it, and the mourners, gathered on principle, dispersed.In South Florida, hundreds die every year without a survivor to claim them. The causes vary: liver failure,dementia. One homeless man died in 2011 when an industrial oven he was helping someone...

A Priest for Forty HoursBy Thomas Peters This incredible story came to me first via family.St. Joseph Parish in Maumee, Ohio posted this note to their Facebook page on Wednesday (it has already been viewed and shared thousands of times since then): As many of you know, our seminarian Deacon Scott Carroll has been battling cancer for some time. Although Scott looked forward to joining his classmates for ordination on June 22, 2013, it became clear this week that an earlier ordination might be prudent.On Wednesday morning, Bishop Blair ordained Fr. Scott to the Order of Presbyter. The ordination...

We have no idea yet if Pope Francis is simply going to lead by words, exhortation, and example or if he is going to back up his words, exhortations and example by concrete directive and promulgations. We have had him for only two months or so and we're still trying to figure him out. He is clearly into the "reform of the reform" and moving forward with that, not backwards. However, for him it is not just a focus on the liturgy, but rather on the people of the Church beginning with bishops, priests and religious, in particular women...

Pope Francis receives a postcard with a photograph of himself as a gift at the end of his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 8. (CNS photo) “The life of slumbering Christians is a sad life; it is not a happy life. Christians must be happy with the joy of Jesus. Let us not fall asleep!� — Pope Francis, General Audience, April 24, 2013. I. To read Pope Francis, we must not be too literal. When he talked, in a recent General Audience, of “slumbering Christians,� he was not waging a war against “slumber parties.�...

Pope Francis sends a kiss to someone in the crowd at the May 8, 2013 general audience in St. Peter's Square. Credit: Stephen Driscoll/CNA. Vatican City, May 14, 2013 / 08:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Christians who buy into Satan’s temptation to live selfishly get swindled, while those who live life as a “gift� to others are immersed in love and the Church community, Pope Francis said. “And, we must say, with Satan the payback is rotten. He always rips us off, always!� the Pope emphasized as he contrasted the kind of selfish living that the devil promotes with the...

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi responds to a journalist's question about the Vatican's participation in Venice's International Art Festival. Credit: Stephen Driscoll/CNA. Vatican City, May 14, 2013 / 09:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican is participating for the first time in a famous international art exposition in Venice under the theme “Creation, Un-Creation and Re-Creation,� with the aim of promoting modern dialogue on faith. The 55th edition of Venice’s Biannual Art Festival, known as the “Biennale di Venezia� in Italian, will take place June 1 to Nov. 24 and will bring together exhibits from 88 different countries. The Vatican’s contribution will...

From a reader: Can my Bishop refuse to allow a priest from another diocese to say the TLM in our parish? Our priest needs someone to cover the Latin Mass during the summer and a priest from an another diocese volunteered to assist. Quite generous and magnanimous!However, apparently the bishop denied permission. Can he do that and if so why would he? Are some clerics that intimidated by the TLM? If so, why??? Are some clerics “intimidated� by the Traditional Latin Mass? Of course they are! What a question. And you know why.But that is not of the essence here.The...

Beijing, May 13, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes the Russian Orthodox Church and religious organizations of China could work together on strengthening morals in the world. "We have common moral tasks. These are global tasks. We see a sharp moral decline in many countries of the world, especially in the Western civilization," the patriarch said during a meeting with representatives of Chinese religious communities in Beijing on Monday. All laws are based on morals and moral decline "will lead to the collapse of the entire system of human relations and mankind will commit suicide," he...

One for the Brick by Brick file.I had a note from a friend in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, where the great Bishop Robert Finn presides.At St. Andrew the Apostle on the north side of KC, Fr. Vince Rogers has installed a new brand new Communion rail!My friend wrote: He has installed altar rails in most of not all of the parishes in which he has served over the past 15-20 years.He noted in his homily this morning, “So, why do I do this everywhere I go? It started when I was a seminarian at the NAC. Mother Teresa...

On 10 May the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church was received by President Xi Jinping, leading to the creation of a new Moscow-Beijing axisThe overture to Patriarch Kirill’s official visit to China marked an important moment in relations between China and the Orthodox Church. Yesterday, in the Great Hall of the People, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church had the privilege of meeting Chinese President, Xi Jinping. “You are the first Patriarch of Moscow and the first supreme religious leader from Russia to visit our country,” Xi told Kirill, presenting this unprecedented event as a “clear sign of...

Father Artysiewicz Every Sunday, Father Theodore Nnabugo is likely to spend as much time behind the wheel of his car as at the altar of a church.Father Nnabugo, pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in La Pine, Ore., also serves three mission parishes spread across a 10,000-square-mile region in the Diocese of Baker, Ore. On Sunday mornings he first heads to Holy Trinity in Sunriver for 8 a.m. Mass, then returns to Holy Redeemer for Mass at 10 a.m. Next up are Masses in two other mission churches, Our Lady of the Snows in Gilchrist at 12:30 p.m. and Holy...

Women deacons, why not? Ever since the Second Vatican Council implemented the vision of the Council of Trent to restore the permanent diaconate, the question has lingered. Now with recent statements on the matter by Walter Cardinal Kasper at the spring assembly of the German Bishops Conference, the topic has gained new traction … not that it ever really went away.Anecdotally, some wives of men in our diocese who signed up for those first diaconate formation classes following Vatican II expected to eventually be ordained themselves. That never happened, at least in the Catholic Church. There was, however, one wife...

Billy Graham is planning to preach publicly one last time—and he wants to do it in homes across the country. This fall, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assocation (BGEA) will launch "My Hope America with Billy Graham," a video evangelism course that "combines the impact of video programs with the power of personal relationships." The series will allow churchgoers to host small groups and view videos culled from messages that Graham has recorded throughout his career. But Graham says he is currently taping a message specifically for the My Hope series, and the BGEA is framing the video as Graham's last...

Fr. Scott Carroll of the Diocese of Toledo. Toledo, Ohio, May 10, 2013 / 04:22 pm (CNA).- Father Scott R. Carroll, ordained a priest of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, on May 8, died of cancer two days later after battling the disease for some time. Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo ordained the transitional deacon a priest at his parents' home with immediate family members present. He was named associate pastor of his home parish, St. Joseph in Maumee, a Toledo suburb. The ordination Mass was concelebrated by the priests of St. Joseph parish, Frs. Keith Stripe and...

Vatican City, May 10, 2013 / 07:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and spoke about the urgent need for unity among Christians in the Middle East. “We must prepare our people for this very real and needed unity that we know and live, we must work quickly and seriously,� said Pope Tawadros II in May 10 remarks provided to CNA by his office. His visit to the Vatican is significant because he leades Egypt’s largest Christian Church with ten million members, as well as historic,...

May 9, 2013 – Much ink has been spilled in recent months over what social analysts are calling the “rise of the Nones.” The trend describes the seeming surge in people who claim no faith or say they are unaffiliated with any belief system. The term rose to prominence when a Pew Research poll found that the number of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated rose to almost 20%—a nearly 5% leap in just the last five years. In the subsequent months, a Gallup poll showed similar numbers, and most recently, in March 2013, a poll from UC-Berkeley and Duke University...

Pope Francis exchanges skull caps with a young girl after arriving for his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 8. (CNS photo/Alessia Giuliani, Catholic Press Photo) (May 8, 2013) Pope Francis made some waves today when he spoke to the plenary assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) about "men and women of the Church who are careerists and social climbers, who 'use' people, the Church, their brothers and sisters—whom they should be serving—as a springboard for their own personal interests and ambitions." It was another example of how the Holy Father—pick a...

Pope Francis told 800 superiors of women’s orders from around the world that the Catholic Church needs religious women and that religious women need to be in harmony with the faith and teachings of the Church. “What would the Church be without you?” the Pope told the women today. “It would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness and a mother’s intuition.” Religious superiors, Pope Francis said, need to ensure their members are educated in the doctrine of the Church, “in love for the Church and in an ecclesial spirit.” Quoting Pope Paul VI, he said: “It’s an absurd dichotomy to think...

Pope Francis told 800 nuns gathered at the Vatican on Wednesday that they should be spiritual "mothers" rather than "spinsters", and stressed the importance of showing obedience to the Catholic Church, reports AFP in The West Australian.The pontiff, 76, told the assembly of the International Union of Superiors General they should strive for "a fertile chastity, a chastity which produces spiritual children within the Church.""The ordained woman is a mother, she must be a mother and not a spinster! You are mothers, like the figures of Mary and the Mother Church," he told the nuns representing women's religious orders...

Vatican City, 8 May 2013 (VIS) – “The men and women of the Church who are careerists and social climbers, who 'use' people, the Church, their brothers and sisters—whom they should be serving—as a springboard for their own personal interests and ambitions … are doing great harm to the Church.” This is what Pope Francis asserted in his address to the participants in the plenary assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) whom he received in audience this morning. The pontiff spoke to the sisters of obedience, poverty, and chastity: “Obedience as listening to God's will, in...

A letter Pope Francis sent to the bishops of Argentina in late March is encouraging pro-life advocates because it says pro-abortion politicians should not be eligible for communion in the Catholic Church.Pope Francis directed the Argentinean bishops to govern the Church there following the Aparecida Document.The text states, in part, “[people] cannot receive Holy Communion and at the same time act with deeds or words against the commandments, particularly when abortion, euthanasia, and other grave crimes against life and family are encouraged. This responsibility weighs particularly over legislators, heads of governments, and health professionals.�“These are the guidelines we need for...

Bishop John Michael Botean. Courtesy of the Eparchy of St. George in Canton. Columbus, Ohio, May 7, 2013 / 02:04 am (CNA).- The bishop of the Eparchy of Saint George in Canton is thankful that the area now extends across both Canada and the U.S., enabling him to serve all Romanian Catholics in North America. On April 23, Pope Francis extended the eparchy's jurisdiction, which was throughout the U.S., to cover all of Canada as well. The eparchy – which is equivalent to a diocese in the Latin Church – had already, in 2010, been given jurisdiction over the...

Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz leaves Paul VI Hall during the October 2012 Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. Credit: Matthew Rarey/CNA. Vatican City, May 7, 2013 / 08:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s doctrine congregation has released a statement saying the media misreported a cardinal’s remarks about the ongoing reform of a group of American sisters, but an inside source at the department says it is confused because the matter is their "exclusive responsibility." An official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith told CNA May 7 on the condition of anonymity that it is...

EL PASO, Texas - Bishop Mark J. Seitz, who on Monday was named the Catholic Diocese of El Paso's new bishop, is a giving person in more ways than one. Read the 2009 article below about how he donated a kidney to a parishioner.A Texas woman in need of a kidney has received one from her parish priest. She has called the donation a “holy kidney,” while he says the gift of his kidney is an attempt to follow Christ’s life-giving example.Carrie Gehling, who has lost both legs to diabetes and has suffered four heart attacks, needed a kidney...

Is it difficult to become Catholic? I don't often disclose personal thoughts on this blog, but I feel that this is something that might be helpful for folks on both sides of the Tiber: Ten Reasons why it's hard to become Catholic. I have spoken to somewhere between 50-100 Protestant ministers who have become Catholic or are contemplating entry into full communion with the Catholic Church. Most of these are Anglican or Presbyterian. A few have been Lutheran.  Over the last several years, I've gathered up the "big ten" that either cause pain or lead to a man saying...

Retired Pope Benedict XVI greets Pope Francis at the Vatican May 2. The 86-year-old retired pontiff, who had been staying at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo since retiring Feb. 28, returned to the Vatican to live in a monastery in the Vatican Gardens. (CNS photo/L'Ossevatore Romano via Reuters) When Pope Francis visited his predecessor at Castle Gandolfo in March, he said to Benedict XVI that “we are brothers.� This image nicely frames the differences between them. It underscores that the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was not a rupture in the Church (as some suggest) but an...

<p>On Wednesday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said President Barack Obama needed to clear up and "renounce" the "un-American" and "amoral" reports from the Pentagon that U.S. soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their Christian faith. She called on Obama to do so "today, right now."</p>

Vatican City, May 6, 2013 / 05:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has appointed Spanish-speaking Bishop Mark J. Seitz to lead the El Paso diocese in western Texas, placing him just across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. “Since I entered the seminary here in Dallas as a young 18-year-old boy, I have loved Dallas and the Church of Dallas,� Bishop Seitz said in a May 6 statement. “But when I presented myself for ordination as a deacon, I gave my life to God’s service and I promised to be at the disposal of the Church. I accept this...

Rome Pope Francis is scheduled to have a private audience next week with the leadership group representing international women's congregations meeting in Rome for their triennial assembly, the group announced Friday.About 800 of nearly 2,000 members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) are meeting in Rome through Wednesday. They will meet privately with Pope Francis before his regular Wednesday general audience.Leaders of the sisters' group, which announced the meeting with the pope at a pre-assembly meeting Friday, could not recall the last time a pope had met with their general membership.Pope Benedict XVI canceled an audience scheduled for...

Dear Spiritual But Not Religious Friends, Are your ears burning? You’re causing quite a stir in my circles these days. Many of my colleagues claim you are the biggest challenge of the church today. You probably didn’t know this was going on. You are Spiritual But Not Religious (SBNR) and most of us talking about you all the time are Spiritual And Also Religious. No offense, but the endless strategizing about you is getting a bit wearisome to me, so I wondered if we could have a frank conversation. As I am sure you’ve noticed, the institutional church in America...

>What a story: An elderly homeless man who has relied on the kindness of strangers to survive recently paid it forward.Ed Denst, 77, donated $250, all in $1 bills, to the Catholic charity the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Council of Los Angeles.“I was shocked,” board president Claire Padama told CBS LA. “I think that’s more meaningful than those people who have a lot.”Padama has known Denst, an ex-Marine, for nearly 20 years, CBS LA reported. He goes to Our Mother of Good Counsel Church every day to receive a meal, something that is made possible by the Saint...

While I have listened to choirs that have bored me nearly to death with their singing, I never knew there were choirs that would sing to you when you are near to death.Turns out, there are, and there’s a story there.Jaweed Kaleem, the national religion reporter for The Huffington Post, highlights the small but growing trend of deathbed singers in his recent article on Threshold Choirs. Death used to happen solely at home or in a hospital, with company limited to family, close friends and clergy. Solemn music would be reserved, perhaps, for the funeral. But as the options for...

In an exceedingly rare appointment of its kind, Pope Francis has named Michael Barber SJ, 58 – a California Jesuit currently serving as the lead spiritual director at Boston's St John's Seminary – as bishop of Oakland. Rare... Francis... Jesuit... Boston... "Super-Cardinal"... Hmm. At the helm of the roughly 600,000-member NorCal church, the bishop-elect succeeds Salvatore Cordileone, who was sent across the Bay to lead the more prestigious – yet less populous – archdiocese of San Francisco last July. Said to be a "low-key, humble" cleric, the Gregorian-trained pick – a Navy chaplain who likewise studied at Oxford – previously...

As a professional Catholic speaker I have the opportunity to visit dozens of parishes every year. In addition to giving general parish talks, I am sometimes asked if I would be willing to speak to the children in the parish school. I always welcome the opportunity, especially when speaking to the lower grades. Having five young children of my own, I am quite comfortable around them.Whenever I have the occasion to speak with the children, I always ask for a show of hands if they have ever been asked by a grownup the following question:“What do you want to...

There is a trend you need to be aware of. Indeed, this is a virus you need to help inoculate others against.Here are a couple examples of the virus that is spreading.First, turn your attention a piece on the site of a news agency in Asia, UCANEWS. A Maryknoller (almost never a good starting point these days) and UCANews publisher Fr William Grimm MM, makes a proposal for decentralization of the Curia. What he is actually proposing is the reduction of the role of the Pope to something like the Archbishop of Canterbury. Let’s look at just a couple things...

Via Deacon Greg Kandra comes this story of a tiny community of Trappist nuns living in civil war-torn Syria. Despite the danger and mounting tensions in the region, the five nuns are determined to stay in their monastery, which was founded in 2005. From an interview conducted with one of the nuns, who is Italian, for an Italian news site: So you deliberately chose to live in a place where Christians are in the minority?Exactly. Here the population is mostly Shiite Muslim, but there are also Sunnis and Alawites; geographically we are at a crossroads. How do you try to...

The average age of men in the USA ordained to the priesthood in 2013 is 32; (on average over the past six years seminarians have been getting slightly younger) two-thirds are Caucasian, and 26 percent carry educational debt.These figures stand out in The Class of 2013: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood, the annual national survey of men being ordained priests for US dioceses and religious communities. The study was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a Georgetown University-based research center.The report is the 17th annual survey of ordinands commissioned by the Secretariat for Clergy,...

Reading Sherry Weddell’s excellent Forming Intentional Disciples is making me think about the American church and what ails her. Can anybody deny that there is a sickness in the body ecclesia? When 50% of Catholics vote for a man who stoutly defends same sex marriage and partial birth abortion can we say that Catholics in America are okay? I don’t think so. Thus a series of posts on what’s killing Catholicism. All the words begin with the letter ‘C’. I can’t help it. I was brought up as a Biblical Evangelical and our pastors always used alliteration to make their...

Israeli president Shimon Peres has officially invited Pope Francis to Israel, it has been revealed after the pair met at the Vatican. According to a statement issued by Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope would “be happy to go to the Holy Land,” although there are currently no firm plans in place for such a trip. The statement said that during a meeting on Tuesday, Peres and Pope Francis discussed the political and social situation in the Middle East and expressed hopes for a resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians so that “with courageous decisions and availability...

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Amid calls for a Vatican investigation, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers is facing fierce criticism for his handling of a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a court-ordered lifetime ban on ministry to children. At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Colts Neck, where the Rev. Michael Fugee had been spending time with a youth group, angry parishioners said they were never told about Fugee’s background, and they questioned Myers’ defense of the priest, the subject of a lengthy story in The Star-Ledger.“It’s complete craziness that the church can let this...

Religious liberty groups have grave concerns after they learned the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to “rape” and advocated that military personnel who proselytize should be court martialed. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is calling on the Air Force to enforce a regulation that they believe calls for the court martial of any service member caught proselytizing. President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished –...

Protestants with a strong religious identity continue to increase as Catholics with a strong religious identity continue to decline, according to a March study by the Pew Research Center. The proportion of Catholics reporting strong religious affiliation declined by almost twenty percentage points over the last few decades, from 46 percent of Catholics in 1974 to 27 percent in 2012. Protestants reporting strong religious affiliation increased more than ten percentage points during the same period, from 43 percent to 54 percent. The contrast between Protestant and Catholic trends is not as straightforward as the numbers suggest. The data tell us...

Germany's top Roman Catholic has called for women to be allowed to become deacons, which would enable them to perform baptisms and marriages outside of mass - a novelty for Catholic women.Archbishop of Freiburg Robert Zollitsch, who chairs the German Bishops' Conference, called for the change at the end of a four-day meeting to discuss possible reforms. The conference, the first of its kind, invited 300 Roman Catholic experts to propose reforms. Zollitsch's comments echo year-long calls from the Central Committee of German Catholics to permit women to become deacons. On Sunday, Zollitsch said that aim was no longer a...

The e-mail went out this morning: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomes Kim Daniels on board as spokesperson for the president of the USCCB, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Daniels brings to the USCCB her experience as director of Catholic Voices USA, an organization of lay Catholics that works to bring the positive message of the Church across a broad range of issues to the public square. She is also an attorney whose practice has focused on religious liberty matters. Daniels and her husband have six children and are active members of their parish in the Archdiocese of Washington. She is...

Despite the popular impression that Pope Francis represents a strong break with the past, those who remember the early days of Benedict's papacy can't help but be struck by some obvious parallels by what we've seen over the past month. Then, as now, people were talking about a demystification of the papacy. Benedict famously appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's Square still swearing an ordinary black sweater under his new vestments and declared himself "a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the lord." Shortly after his election, Benedict went by his old apartment in Rome's Piazza Leonina...